Basic mandatory compliance training that companies should be delivering to their staff

As we operate in an increasingly complex risk landscape, it’s crucial that companies get things right when it comes to compliance.

 All organisations, large and small, need to make sure they’re being compliant with the relevant laws and regulations for their industry.

This is important not only for the safety and wellbeing of employees, but also for the success of the business. After all, there are serious consequences of non-compliance, including legal proceedings, fines and penalties, and the loss of income and reputation.

The best way to significantly reduce your compliance risk, while helping to keep staff safe and accountable, is to provide mandatory compliance training to all employees.

With proper compliance training, employees will be kept up-to-date on the laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to their employment, while gaining a solid understanding of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

Wondering what compliance issues your mandatory training should be covering?

Here are some of the key areas of compliance you should be including in your employee training.

Workplace safety training

Workplace safety is one of the most important compliance areas and something that should definitely be included in mandatory compliance training.

Companies face considerable fines and business impacts if they fail to be compliant with current workplace safety laws and regulations.

To avoid this, and keep your employees safe on the job, employers must provide appropriate workplace safety training for all staff and take responsibility for providing them with a safe workplace.

That means delivering mandatory compliance training to all staff on workplace safety policies and procedures. Depending on your industry and job role, this could include modules in areas such as manual handling, PPE awareness, and emergency and evacuation training.

Code of conduct training

Workplace issues such as bullying, harassment, discrimination, and inappropriate conduct also pose a significant risk to both workers and businesses.  

According to Safe Work Australia, work related stress and bullying is costing Australian employers $693 million every year. With the maximum penalty for breaching the Work Health and Safety Act being $3 million, it’s really not worth the risk of being slack when it comes to compliance.

Unfortunately, company scandals involving ethics and corruption continue to demonstrate that many organisations are failing when it comes to building a culture of compliance. In the interest of your company’s reputation and long-term success, you must understand the importance of compliance and build an ethical work culture that respects and follows it.

Make sure you’re delivering mandatory compliance training on topics such as bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, and equal opportunity, to continually remind staff of important key messages. It’s important to look at the policies you have in place across these areas and the legal obligations and laws around them.

Data management and security training

Next on the list? Data management and security training.

Unfortunately, many companies have experienced the effects of serious data breaches and cyber attacks.

It’s really important that companies have effective security programs and policies to keep these threats at bay, to protect company data, as well as any sensitive and confidential information relating or belonging to their customers or clients.

Earlier this year,­­­ we saw some very important changes around data breaches. These changes were made to increase the level of security for individuals, protecting customer data that companies have access to. Organisations will now have to prove that they are taking this issue seriously.

Businesses that fail to show they have the right compliance measures in place – or are at least making efforts to – will face serious fines, with civil penalties of up to $1.8 million.

To minimise this risk, make sure you’re educating staff about data security and compliance. Investing some time and money in compliance training is worth the investment, to make sure your business is safeguarding against the event of a data breach or cyber attack.

Training staff around this issue and increasing your cyber security is your best line of defence. You can learn more about the precautions you can take to protect yourself and your business from malicious ransomware and the risk of cyber attack here.

Using eLearning to reduce compliance risk

Now that you know the key areas to focus on with your mandatory compliance training, you’ll need to get things set up and running for your employees.

If you’re keen to update and improve compliance training for your employees, moving your training online is a great place to start.

Using an eLearning platform such as Go1 Premium to create and deliver compliance training will help your staff engage with learning materials while completing their mandatory courses.

The Go1 platform also allows you to easily track staff progress, see how each team member is going with the content and whether they may need additional direction, assistance or further resources.

To make things even easier, you can choose to use your own compliance content with the Go1 platform, creating a fully customised program for your employees.

By making compliance training mandatory for all staff, you’ll soon have greater peace of mind for your employees and your business. Remember, when it comes to compliance you really need to get it right.

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